


5 Star Vacations, Husbands and Unfortunate Nerves

by NevaRYadL



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Language, M/M, Mentioned Aniexty, Suggestive Dialogue, dailyr76, mentioned PTSD, mentioned body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 01:48:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14226453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NevaRYadL/pseuds/NevaRYadL
Summary: My contest Entry for dailyreaper76's milestone contest!"Two old soldiers go on vacation somewhere nice... now if only Jack's nerves would register that instead of being on edge."Prompt: Sandy Shoreshttps://nevaryadl.tumblr.com/





	5 Star Vacations, Husbands and Unfortunate Nerves

The waves batted against Jack’s hips as he waded further out into the ocean.

The water was warm, perfectly so and even without his visor to clear up his vision, his mostly blind eyes could make out the gorgeous teal color that the water was. The water did not smell like dead fish like that one ocean trip Jack went on way back when he was in high school. This water smelled kind of like salt but mostly Jack just smelled moisture and the hint of smoke from the campfire still smouldering away from the previous night on the beach.

The sand was almost silky underneath Jack’s feet as he waded in the water, soft underneath the thick and calloused soles. Not grainy or gritty, some scrapping simply because it was sand, but it felt goddamn luxurious against his skin, was an almost pure white too. Hardly a speck out of place or any grains that deviated from the silky pale sands, probably manicured that way too.

“Your pale ass is going to get a sunburn if you don’t come back here and get some sunblock on!” Gabriel yelled from the beach.

Casting his eyes towards the shore, Jack saw the dark smear that was Gabriel, still sitting underneath the wide and dark umbrella probably. With a sigh, Jack started trudging back towards the shore, wading through the perfect water and across the perfect sand of this perfectly manicured little beach out in the middle of nowhere. The kind of place that people dreamed about, the kind that the super rich would flaunt to the world, the kind of dream romantic getaway that couples dreamed about spoiling their partner with.

But the kind of heavily manicured place on earth that set Jack on edge. Which was not fair, most every place on earth set him on edge. Certainly was not fair to Gabriel for him to be on edge when they were supposed to be having their anniversary vacation in this gorgeous, and dead isolated from the world, spot. Even as Jack stepped onto drier sand to walk to Gabriel’s side underneath the umbrella, he tensed and ready for gunfire, sniper shots, explosions, to plainly be attacked since he was not dressed up in armor and his pulse rifle was in the beach house closer to the forest. Jack’s teeth were on edge, tensing for a fight that the rational side of his mind knew was not coming. 

But instincts were never rational, just raw thoughts, stripped of hesitation and often feeling to produce fast and raw actions often meant to save lives. Instincts often did not give jack shit if you were on a vacation meant to help start making up for all the missed anniversaries and missed milestones of a relationship. Did not give jack shit that this was one of the few opportunities that they had total alone and relaxation time together without any threat of missions or barging in from coworkers, friends or family. Instincts did not give jack shit about Jack’s vacation and Jack really did not want to give a shit about his instincts, but it was hard to ignore baseline brain chemistry.

“Sit right here, Jackie-boo,” Gabriel said, patting what Jack’s blurred eyesight thought was the beach chair that Gabriel was also sitting on. Jack eased himself down with a grunt, putting his back to Gabriel and looking out at the vast blur of teals and blues and greens.

“It’s going to be cold,” Gabriel warned before putting cold slicked up fingers against his back. The coldness made Jack shudder for a moment, but the beach was hot enough that it did not bother him for long. Jack watched the ocean as Gabriel’s fingers swept carefully and lovingly along the length of his back, sometimes straying over the large patches of burn scars that marked his skin.

“You’re tense,” Gabriel stated, mournfully pulling his hands away to get more sunblock.

“Sorry,” Jack muttered.

“Don’t be, I understand,” Gabriel said softly. The cold and slick hands returned, rubbing sunblock into his shoulders and down the lengths of his arms. Jack groaned softly underneath the touch, leaning into Gabriel’s hands as they coated what they could reach in sunblock before urging him to turn around. Jack suddenly felt a pang of guilt for leaving his visor… somewhere when faced with the smear that was was his husband in his fucked up eyes. Something soon forgotten as Gabriel’s hands rubbed along the length of his chest, leaning into his space until he could almost make details out about his handsome husband’s face.

“Jackie?” Gabriel chuckled.

“Yeah?” Jack asked, realizing that he slipped out of it for a moment.

“You seemed like you nodded off for a moment, you with me?” Gabriel chuckled softly, leaning forward to kiss his nose sweetly. “You need a nap?”

“Nah, just… ugh,” Jack leaned forward and managed to score a kiss off of Gabriel’s smirking lips. Ha, mostly blind his ass, he could still aim pretty well with pretty much useless eyes. “Emotion, instincts… I don’t think I’m capable of relaxing and feeling like I’m ruining this vacation for you.”

“You’re not ruining anything, you’re here and I’m enjoying myself just fine,” Gabriel said softly, rough and calloused fingers gentle on Jack’s skin. “And you haven’t booby-trapped the island, so you’re definitely more relaxed than I thought you would be.”

“You mean… ‘I haven’t booby-trapped the island... _that you know of,_ ’” Jack smirked back.

“Jokes? Out of you? Why Jackie-boo I am astonished,” Gabriel laughed. Such a blessed sound, Jack wanted to hear it for the rest of his life. “But come on, you’re doing fantastic so far.”

Jack snorted before letting Gabriel manhandle his legs into his hands to smear more sunblock on. Really needed it there, some of the worst burn scars were on his legs and the fucked up skin really could not take much more damage of the heat kind. But when Jack’s legs were coated, Gabriel patted his thigh to let him off the hook.

“This will last you an hour,” Gabriel informed him before leaning back into the chair, clearly no intentions on joining Jack.

“Aren’t you coming into the bright sun with me?” Jack asked.

“Skin doesn’t act like it’s supposed to, it’ll be better for me in the shade,” Gabriel said with a heavy sigh. “I’ll join you when it’s a bit darker out.”

Right… the nanites and what else made up Gabe’s fucked up biology. Hard to want to be anywhere warm when warmth felt more like hot metal than sun on skin. Explained the black umbrella, other than Gabriel’s goth aesthetic of course. Also made something in the pit of Jack’s chest hurt like a son of a bitch.

“Not much of vacation if it’s not together,” Jack said.

“Not much to do if I can’t be underneath the sun for long either, Jackie,” Gabriel retorted back without bite.

“Well we’re old shits,” Jack said before turning his back to Gabe and then leaning into him. Gabriel stiffed at first, always hesitant about being touched after their reunion and subsequent start up of their relationship again, before relaxing back into the chair with Jack on him. An arm was even thrown over Jack’s abdomen.

Despite his nerves from earlier, Jack quickly found himself relaxing with Gabriel close by him. It was strange but even after all these years and after all that they had been through, that Jack could feel comfort and safe about Gabriel. Jack was almost dozing as they lay there simply enjoying the contact and warmth of their joined bodies, listening to the soothing sounds of their breathing and the quiet ocean as waves softly hit the beach. Quiet… relaxation… maybe this was a vacation and not just being tense in a new location. Kind of boring, but at their age and with the aches and pains of their older bodies, it was probably for the best.

When the sun went down some and the sky darkened a bit, Gabriel finally deemed it safe enough to leave the shade of his umbrella, smearing another layer of sunblock on Jack before following him out into the ocean as the sunset smeared oranges, reds and yellows over the the teal waters. Jack found the waves batting at his hips again, though this time with some rather great company, wading out until they were waist deep in the still slightly warm water. It would be a bit before it got cold, but thankfully swimming and generally being in water was not the top thing on their vacation to do list. It was just nice to be with Gabe.

“Can you even swim anymore?” Jack chuckled when Gabriel insisted on pulling them deeper into the water.

“A little, my body likes to sink first, excess weight and higher density and all that,” Gabriel chuckled back, “Relax boo, we’re not going far.”

They went up until the water was to their chests before stopping. Jack liked the slight weightlessness of it, reliving some of the minor aches of his joints as he slightly floated above the silky sands underneath his feet.

“Wish I had my visor,” Jack grumbled playfully, hands coming up to cup Gabriel’s cheeks and thumbing at the dark skin. This close, Jack could make out some of Gabriel’s handsome features.

“It’s not waterproof because _someone_ couldn’t bring himself to ask for help waterproofing it,” Gabriel grinned, a flash of white in Jack’s blurred vision. Jack leaned forward to kiss that smiling mouth, liking how those scarred lips brushed against his. When Jack pulled away, he felt flush and and pulled Gabe in closer until their chests were pressed together in the water.

“You know me, always forgetting shit when we travel,” Jack playfully gruffed, trading Gabriel’s face to wrap arms around the man’s neck and pull him that much closer.

“Remember that undercover op where you forgot to pack socks and underwear?” Gabriel chuckled, slipping arms around Jack’s waist.

“Don’t remind me, Ana still laughs about that to this day,” Jack snorted.

They waded in the water for a moment, just… enjoying themselves with the sounds of the ocean around them. The peace, the quiet, the-

Jack’s stomach growled.

Gabriel laughed, pulling Jack close and into a tighter hug while Jack just laughed at himself for ruining the moment.

“Well we did say we wanted to have a barbeque pit tonight,” Gabriel said before taking Jack’s hands and leading them out of the water.

Jack figured that they would probably not want to get back in the water after dinner, so they showered quickly in the cabin together before throwing on light and comfortable clothing and heading back outside. Jack took the job of getting the firewood from the pre-prepared bundle by the cabin’s side while Gabriel cleaned up the pit a bit and set it up to house another. Would do no good of them to burn down anything on this little island that they were borrowing for the moment. And as much as Gabriel liked to tease Jack about forgetting to pack things for trips, Jack did remember to bring a lighter and even grabbed some kindling from the pile to properly start the fire. Then showed off rusty ‘boy-scout’ skills and started the fire going.

“You still can’t tie a knot worth shit,” Gabriel laughed as he went to go raid the cabin’s ice box for something to char on their fire.

“I’m old enough I can get away with velcro shoes,” Jack retorted.

“Ha!”

They ended up charing some basic kabobs, sitting together and listening to the fire crackle along to the sounds of the ocean not too far away from them. Since they were not going back into the waters, Jack did eventually pry himself away from Gabriel’s side to get his visor, snapping it on and turning it down so he could go back to sitting by the fire with his husband.

“You know, Angie says that she can fix those pretty blues of yours, Jackie,” Gabriel noted as they pressed up against one another.

“Yeah, but I’m old and I’ve learned to live with it,” Jack sighed, “Super soldier serum or not, I’m just too old to let something that’s more annoying than anything to bother me enough to fix it.”

“Fair enough,” Gabriel hummed. How many times had they had this conversation? At least six by Jack’s count. But they had both gotten shit at small talk since they got old and crabby, so maybe it was just their way to fill the silence, not that they were bothered by it much these days.

Dinner was finished cooking and eaten without fanfare and by that time it the sun was setting. They sat before the still going fire, leaned heavily against one another.

“...I really wish you would come back to Overwatch with me…” Jack muttered.

“Yeah, yeah… not ready, “ Gabriel said back.

“Everyone wants you back,” Jack said, “Angie asks me everyday if she needs to prep for you coming back. Jesse wants to work things out with you and Genji misses you. Reinhardt keeps stomping around base, saying that you’re being stubborn just like the good ol’ days. Lena says that she misses you something terrible.”

“I know… jesus do I know,” Gabriel sighed, “But I’ve got a lot of shit to do and just…”

“Scared.”

“Yeah.”

Despite everyone clamoring about wanting Gabriel back, Gabriel had been hesitant since his sudden turning on Talon. Sure, Gabriel was slaughtering and taking down Talon and generally being a literal menace from hell with them, but Gabriel had been hesitant to rejoin after all that he had done as Reaper. Jack could see that the guilt was eating him, chewing at the man but… what could he do? It would hardly be fair to force Gabriel to be in a place that he felt was hostile towards him. It would be unfair force Gabriel to do anything after their shit history.

“I love you, Gabriel.”

“Love you too, Jack.”

“Just… you have a home when you’re good and ready for it,” Jack said, nudging his husband.

“I know... trust me, I know. Would love waking up to that handsome silvered mug of yours every morning,” Gabriel sighed before leaning over to kiss Jack’s head.

When it started getting darker, they extinguished the fire before retiring into the cabin for the evening. They set up the bug nets, though they were assured that it was not bug season just yet, flipping on the soft yellow lights and retiring to the living room. There was a small tv that got some local stations from a populated island a few miles away, though they hardly used it for anything other than background noise and sometimes paranoid flipping to the news channel because old habits died harder than old super soldiers.

They sat down and watched some shitty action movie playing, Jack eventually getting up to get a pair of beers for the two of them and then really going mushy in their chairs.

“...I still want to know… how anyone in Overwatch afforded this island,” Gabriel said after awhile of vegging out.

“Apparently everyone chipped in, they figured that they could all take turns taking vacations here,” Jack said, snapping his visor off because it was giving him a headache and the movie really was shit to look at. “According to McCree, apparently Shimada money and journaling money fueled most of it.”

“Riiiiight, I’ll believe that McCree makes bank writing about himself under a writing handle the day that he drops the cowboy aesthetic,” Gabriel laughed.

Jack laughed too, downing the rest of his beer and mindlessly listening to the shitty movie play. When their beers were empty, Jack got up to get them another round, though when he came back he choose a much more comfortable seat to sit in.

“Hey!” Gabriel laughed as Jack sat in his lap.

“Best seat in the house,” Jack said, cracking open his drink and leaning back against his husband.

“To sit your _Jack_ ass?” Gabriel snorted.

Jack laughed at that, craning around to blindly kiss at whatever he could get. Ended up kissing Gabriel’s forehead, which was good enough. Gabriel kissed his chin in retort before wrapping his arms around Jack’s waist and just holding him close.

They would deal with having to part in a few days. They would deal with the deeper problems in their relationship and what they had a personal level when it was the right time. They would deal with all shit in their lives when it came time to address them. Right now they were two old husbands enjoying a vacation together and literal miles away from any sentient life that could pester or bother them.

Gabriel’s fingers rubbed along Jack’s lower stomach, slow circles with calloused fingertips that had sensitivity sparking along the skin. There was definite intent behind the touch.

“Hello, what brought this on?” Jack laughed softly but tilting himself just slightly into the touch.

“Hmm, got a handsome man in my lap,” Gabriel purred against Jack’s shoulder, pressing a kiss to the pale skin. “You willing, Jackie-boo?”

“Oh very.”

They absconded to the bedroom, kissing and grinning at one another.

Just two old soldiers trying to enjoy some peace and quiet. Just two old soldiers trying to enjoy a vacation after some literal shitstorms in their lives.

Just two old men and these sandy shores.


End file.
